That, of all things, made her eyebrows go up. "Nid'Qir? And here I thought you seemed so nice."
R'Shev laughed. "I left the peninsula a long time ago."
"Ah," she said, turning away and starting off again. "That must be it."
'Doryn had just returned from the lakeshore with five beautiful trout when N'Tevva and the girls reached the house. He was outside still, preparing to clean the fish. At the sound of the two children calling to him, he straightened and waved to them.
Vettala reached him first. "Look what I got!" she said. She held out her hand, showing him a small sweet of some sort.
The girl had come such a long way since she, Jynna, and several other children first arrived in Lowna, their lives shattered by the plague that had killed their families and destroyed their home village of Tivston. Jynna had grieved for all she lost, as one would expect, but Vettala had been so devastated by all she'd seen that horrific night that she wouldn't even speak. Now, only a few turns later, she looked and acted like any normal child. Mostly. There were difficult days when she brooded in silence, nights when she couldn't sleep for the grisly visions that haunted her slumber. But even these were growing less frequent. She and Jynna called S'Doryn and N'Tevva by their names, but in all other ways they treated them as they would their parents. For their part, S'Doryn and his wife, who had despaired of ever having children of their own, were grateful beyond words for the chance to take care of these girls and raise them as their own.
"What is that?" S'Doryn asked the girl, staring at the treat she held as if he'd never seen such a thing before.
"A sweet! Jynna got one, too! A peddler gave them to us!"
"A peddler. Is that so?" He looked at N'Tevva, his eyes narrowing. "And just how much did we give him before he gave us the sweets?"
His wife grinned. "Nothing. I promise," she added, in response to his skeptical look. "He just wanted to know where he could find U'Selle."
"You caught five of them?" Jynna said, seeing his catch. She sounded impressed.
S'Doryn looked at her. "Yes, I did. Even without your help." He glanced at N'Tevva again. "I think T'Noth and Etan are going to join us, so I wanted extras."
She nodded. "All right. The fish look lovely."
He smiled and then went back to cleaning them, while N'Tevva took the girls into the house and began to prepare the rest of their evening meal.
He had just finished with the second fish when he heard voices. Glancing up, he saw T'Noth approaching the house. He quickly looked up a second time. Etan was walking beside his friend, but so too was the a'laq. S'Doryn rinsed his hands in the bucket that held the three remaining fish, and then went to greet them.
"I don't mean to interrupt your supper, S'Doryn," U'Selle said. "As I told T'Noth and Etan, I was just out for a stroll, so I thought I'd join them."
"Of course, A'Laq," he said, though he wasn't certain he believed her. There was something strange in her voice, in the way she looked at him. "Etan," he said. "The girls are waiting for you inside."
"All right," the boy said, bounding into the house.
S'Doryn looked at the a'laq again. Her eyes flicked toward T'Noth. "I think N'Tevva could use some help," he told his friend.
T'Noth eyed them both, a slight frown on his square, youthful face. "Of course she could," he said.
The a'laq chuckled. "Forgive us, T'Noth. I need a word with him."
"I understand, A'Laq." He looked at S'Doryn once more before following the boy into the house.
"No doubt you'll tell him everything once I'm gone," U'Selle remarked quietly, watching the man walk away.
"Only with your permission. You know that."
She nodded, taken by a fit of coughing. "I do know that," she said, when she could speak again. "I'm afraid I have to take you away from your supper, at least for a while. I need everyone on the clan council at my house immediately. I'd like you to summon the rest for me."
"Of course, A'Laq," S'Doryn said. "I just need to tell N'Tevva."
She nodded and he started toward the house. After a few strides he stopped and turned again. U'Selle had already begun to walk away. "Can you tell me what this is about?" he asked.
She looked back at him and shook her head. "No, not yet."
Lowna was by no means the largest village in Fal'Borna land, but it wasn't the smallest either. It took S'Doryn some time to find all the other members of the clan council and direct them to the alaq's house. By the time he and the last of his fellow members were able to join the rest, night had fallen.
A peddler's cart stood outside U'Selle's home and when they entered they found another man there with the a'laq, a stranger S'Doryn had never seen before. S'Doryn knew immediately that the man wasn't Fal'Borna; he was too tall, too narrow in the shoulders and chest, and his complexion was entirely too pale. He was an older man with a wispy white beard that made his face appear even thinner than it was. S'Doryn assumed from the man's appearance that he hailed from one of the western clans.
Seeing that all of them were there, U'Selle stood.
"I'm sorry to have summoned you on such short notice," she said. "If this could have waited even until the morning I wouldn't have disturbed you." She indicated the peddler with an open hand. "This is R'Shev," she said. "He's just come from the Companion Lakes, where he saw something that alarmed him enough to drive his cart all the way here in just three days. I'll let him tell his story in his own words."
She sat once more, looking expectantly at the stranger. R'Shev stood, his long legs unfolding as if he were a child's toy. On another occasion, S'Doryn might have found his appearance comical. But as soon as the man began to speak, in a clear voice that was nearly devoid of any accent, he realized that this was no laughing matter.
It was bad enough that so large an Eandi army had been seen within ten leagues of the Silverwater. But to have the leader of a Mettai village issue such a stark warning was truly frightening. Yet there was still more to the man's tale. Like R'Shev and the a'laq, S'Doryn wasn't sure what to make of what the eldest of the Mettai village had said, but the words sounded ominous.
"So war is coming," said Y'Bej, one of the other council members, when R'Shev had lowered himself into his chair once more.
"Yes," U'Selle said. "That much is clear. It seems that word of the plague sweeping across our lands has reached the dark-eyes. They think we've been weakened, and so they've chosen to attack us and exploit that weakness."
"Did the eldest say this?" Y'Bej asked the peddler.
"This is my thinking," U'Selle told him before R'Shev could respond. "Do you disagree?"
"No, A'Laq," Y'Bej said.
"What about the rest of you?"
No one spoke.
U'Selle nodded. "I'm wondering," she went on, "if any of you can make some sense of the rest of what Kirayde's eldest told our friend here."
"Perhaps the eldest knew of the baskets and their curse," S'Doryn said. "When he referred to all that had happened, perhaps that's what he meant. Could it be that the commander was thanking the Mettai for weakening us?"
"Or maybe he asked them to make more cursed baskets," said E'Vylia, the village herbmistress.
"Wait just a moment," R'Shev broke in, his eyes flicking back and forth between U'Selle and S'Doryn. "Are you telling me that the Mettai are responsible in some way for the pestilence that's been striking at septs on the plain?"
The a'laq nodded, her expression grim. "Yes, although we have no reason to believe that all the Mettai were behind this. But at least one woman made baskets for trade that she then cursed and sold. The Y'Qatt were the first to be affected, but the plague eventually spread to our people."
"Blood and bone," the peddler whispered. "Forgive me, A'Laq. Had I known, I wouldn't have set foot in their marketplace."
U'Selle reached over and patted the man's arm, a sad smile on her lips. "It's all right, R'Shev. You've proven your friendship to the Fal'Borna." She glanced around the room at the members of the council. "Our friend here is Nid'Qir," she told them. "Remember that the next time you have in ill word to say about his clan. In any case, we were talking about the Mettai and what the Eandi commander might have been asking of them."